After decades of armed conflict between the Colombian State and guerrilla movements, and after the broad mobilizations of different social strata against the high cost of living, and the policies of the government of Ivan Duque; came to the presidency of Colombia Gustavo Petro, an opportunist leader in the field of the so-called "left", without any link to the revolutionary and communist positions, who at some point assumed the guerrilla struggle. He took advantage of the wave of mass protests proposing a polyclassist program, for the deepening of capitalism in Colombia and the growth of the industrial sector. He was able to add multiple social organizations to his campaign, mainly in rural areas, achieving enough votes to become president of the republic and took office in August 2022.

Having completed the first 150 days of government, it is convenient to review the advances of his policy which, as we have already stated, is a bourgeois policy oriented to protect the rate of profit, to dynamize the agricultural land market, to expand the reserve industrial army, to lower the cost of labor force and to liberate territories where capital investments have been hindered, due to the armed conflict. All to the detriment of the traditional landowning class and in favor of the bourgeois-industrial class. Petro sets in motion his bourgeois program and the working class has only to discard the illusions, aggrandized by promises and demagogy, and prepare for the struggle.

An important element of the government program is the proposal for agrarian reform. This seeks the purchase of land by the State for subsequent distribution to small peasants. However, there is strong pressure from cattle ranchers and large landowners who have historically opposed such reforms, which is why they have proposed to buy the land instead of expropriating it. In an interview the president stated that this would be done with 60 billion pesos, through treasury bonds or other means. This represents a large transfer of wealth to the Colombian landowning sector in general and to the cattle ranchers’ federation (Fedegan) in particular, in order to integrate the interests of the large landowners with those of the current government; achieving a reluctant and unstable cooperation between the two. Finally, increased taxes on oil, mines or other natural sources of income are sought, along with an increase in surveying projects, to support a property tax regime and future possibilities of increases in land income taxes on the horizon.

This attack on the purchasing power of the latifundista sector, gives continuity to the historical project of the Colombian industrial bourgeoisie, and does not break with the past, as was proposed in the electoral campaign. The agrarian reform of President Lleras (1966-70) had equivalent objectives. It attacked land hoarding, making land cheaper, making it more costly to accumulate. In addition, it encouraged land improvement, which under normal circumstances allows for an increase in rents to the owner, thus discouraging any improvement by rented peasants. Finally, it presents an attempt to put an end to the armed conflict, by fulfilling one of the major demands of small peasants, on whose class the guerrilla groups are based. This would make the natural resources of the Colombian countryside cheaper and more available, attacking the rent of already exploited properties.

The end of the armed conflict has become a political goal of the current government. Although it is too early to see the consequences of the so-called "total peace", some trends can be observed in it. Mainly, its scale. Through Law 2272, an increase in the power of the Executive has been signed, allowing to agree and execute peace processes with armed groups and organized crime, together with greater guarantees for its compliance; in comparison with previous processes, marked by non-compliance and limited scale. Additionally, it is proposed to strictly comply with the 2016 peace process, which shows the commitment of this administration to the reintegration of armed actors into society.

These economic and social changes will undoubtedly save many lives, however bourgeois peace is based on the subjugation of the proletariat and its immolation in the temple of the exploitation of wage labor. These reforms seek to remove the obstacles to the accumulation of capital in the countryside, by reducing rent, and encouraging increases in agricultural productivity. Such accumulation will free up the rural labor force for use in the cities, leading to a reduction in wages in the short term (increase in the supply of the commodity labor force relative to demand) and a decrease in the relative social position of workers in the long term. By keeping these social reforms within the horizon of general commodity production, capital accumulation has this consequence. Within this framework, increased production and productivity are linked to the more intensive exploitation of labor and capital, which is the purpose and objective of this reform.

Another major reform on the table is the tax reform. This seeks, among other things, to increase taxes on the mining-energy sector, by increasing its income taxes, based on the prices of the products in international markets. In total, this represents up to 57% of the reform’s revenues, capturing part of all the income from these lands in the State’s coffers. Additionally, another important element is the elimination of exceptions for special sectors, such as tourism. And finally, it seeks to collect more money from people with high incomes, through higher taxes on occasional profits, wealth and income.

These tax increases seek the domination of the industrial sector over the State, and pretend to be presented as an answer to the claims of the masses in the streets during 2021. In the first place, because they seek to improve the fiscal sustainability of the State at the expense of landowners and individuals, reducing their income through new taxes on natural resources and income, without further affecting industrial companies. For the latter, a reduction of their taxes would be sought in the future. On the way to this are the agrarian reform and various social programs. These are implemented taking as a reference the protests of 2021, where the working class and different oppressed and/or impoverished strata, decided to fight against the government in a social outburst, which today is used by the government to justify its program and policies, and thus confront its weaknesses in parliament and legislative spaces. Likewise, with this policy the Petro government annuls any possibility of independence of the workers’ movements, whose leaders, traitors, decided to form popular fronts with the president, abandoning an independent program, under the promise of "progressive" reforms, channeling the anger of the workers towards the defeat of one fraction of the bourgeoisie and the uprising of another.

The reorganization of the Colombian bourgeoisie brings with it the confrontation of both capitalist sectors; on the side of the class of traditional landowners this confrontation assumes various forms, the most used against Petro, so far, being the criticism of the devaluation of the peso. Until November there was a rapid devaluation of the peso against the dollar, faster than the parallel devaluations that happened in other countries, such as Mexico. This devaluation was used in the traditional media as a hammer with which to hit Petro’s administration, together with attacks to measures such as the agrarian reform, attacks against the oil policy, or others, blaming the government for generating uncertainty in international investors.

The current devaluation of the Colombian peso has several reasons. The increase in interest rates of the U.S. Federal Reserve increases the upward pressure on the dollar. However, Banco de la República raised interest rates much higher and aggressively, without slowing down this devaluation. For this reason, we must also consider the expectation of a crisis in international markets, due to which investors will seek to sell the bonds in their possession, fearing that they will not be able to give their expected value, buying safer bonds, such as those collected in dollars, the most common reserve currency. Added to this is a speculative nature, having additional pressure from investors who expect a cessation of oil exploration in Colombia, and an expenditure on land purchases, and therefore sell their Colombian bonds. By taking a stance against the fall of the peso, it promotes oil exploitation and condemns agrarian reform. Confrontation that allows the government to assume a "popular" or "populist" or "progressive" pose, while favoring capitalist exploitation with anti-worker policies.

In conclusion, Petro’s coming to power was marked by massive protests and discontent of the workers, however this discontent was channeled, as seen before, towards policies that promote the interests of the industrial bourgeoisie, with demagogic policies that seek to maintain the favor of the workers, due to the unstable political environment of the current government and the need for popular support. Petro pursues these policies to the extent that they are currently convenient, maintaining a coalition led by industrialists. However, when these are no longer needed, the dominance of the industrial bourgeoisie is secured and the dominance of traditional sectors is uprooted, the iron hand of the bourgeoisie will be shown without kid gloves. The only solution is the search for a proletarian program, through an independent movement, of the proletariat by itself, which does not compromise its interests to those of the bourgeoisie, which are expressed in political opportunists like Petro. This can only be achieved under the leadership of the communist party and the resumption of the workers’ struggle.

- From El Partido Comunista, N. 30, January 2023